Zon.odt 0
An article of mine.. Angels in Sci Fi? Interesting question and here is my take on it: it depends on the definition of Angel . As you know the bible is not a book but a collection of books. Various churches and faiths have a different opinion what books are included and which are not. The King James varies from the Catholic version and both are different from the Bible used in the East Orthodox church. Some books are excluded by certain faiths and even considered “evil” and not bible material at all. The oldest portion of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, uses the (Hebrew) terms מלאך אלהים (mal'āk̠ 'ĕlōhîm; messenger of God). Some scholars consider these early mentions as aspects of God. Not “individuals” as per say) Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name, mentioning Gabriel (God's primary messenger) in Daniel 9:21 and Michael (the holy fighter) in Daniel 10:13. These angels are part of Daniel's apocalyptic visions and are an important part of all apocalyptic literature. Now these angels have no place in science fiction. But if you consider the Ancient astronaut theories of Erich von Däniken and others and Angels are actually visitors from other planets (Famous is the experience and description of Hesekiel that could very well describe a space ship landing. Described by someone of pre industrial times). Then the old testament is full of “Sci Fi Story starters) 1. The Old testament describes a race of beings mingling with humans and thus cause God to sent the flood. Satan being an angel and jealous of the humans who are created in the Image of God and placed in hierarchy above the “Angels” and thus causing his rebellion. Again a treasure trove of stories for Sci Fi and SF. But if Angels or similar beings actually act in a spiritual way, for example interacting with the dead and guide them to the beyond, the other side, act as agents of God or gods; they have no place in a SF story and pushing the boundaries for a Sci Fi story. Sure the story can be told but then you open the door to characters such as “Personified Death”, “Messiahs”, “Life forces”, “Creation” etc. Such characters and their ilk have no room in SF, sorry. So the presented story might be the chapter to a great fantasy story or a horror story with spiritual elements such as Constantine, Hell boy, Resident Evil etc. While a fantasy story environment can have space marines fighting demons. It is still a fantasy and not a sci fi environment. I am dancing at the edge of this in my own Universe. I have the Antoo, who tried to “ascent” to the next stage of evolution and shed their physical shells. After experimenting and researching for thousands of years. They tried and it went terribly wrong, trapping the Antoo between the Planck Universe and different plane of existence ( Brane theory Hyper space, Universe → Mega Verse and Omniverse) The Antoo appear as insubstantial vapors and are in horrible agony (unable to sleep, rest etc) I have the Narth, the first sentient beings of our Universe, merging into a symbiosis with a hyper space entity. So if the ghost, zombie, wizard, witch, ghoul, vampire is somehow explained by science and technology even just vaguely based on a wacko theory and with a ton of Handwavium. Such an entity could work in a SCI FI environment. (Such as Q in Star Trek or Dr. Who (Time Masters)) 1 I wrote a short story where a British submarine goes back in time and creates the legend of Jonas swallowed by the Whale (How would a stone age person describe a submarine that is named “Sword Fish” by it crew?) Category:Fragments not Galactic Chronicles